Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Ukrainians consider trials against opposition leaders unjust

Last Friday's 'Shuster Live' programme was particularly bad-tempered - opposition parliamentary deputies eventually walked out in protest because of constant interruptions and harassment by Party of Regions' spokesmen.

Despite the PoR attack-dogs' vociferous protests, and their attempts to 'talk-down' former president Leonid Kravchuk, the latter, with the support of a visibly-annoyed Shuster, managed to conduct a straw poll among the supposedly representative studio audience.

Responding to the question, "Is that which is taking place in the Pechersk courthouse [where former PM Yulia Tymoshenko and former minister of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Lutsenko are being tried] justice?" 84% of the studio audience said 'No', 16% said 'Yes'.

Responding to the question, "Is Tymoshenko's behaviour in the court correct?" 60% said 'No', 40% said 'Yes', i.e. a majority do not like the courtroom being turned into a zoo.

Nevertheless, as I mentioned in a previous blog, a majority of Ukrainians, as well as Western observers have probably already made up their mind and decided these criminal cases are politically motivated.

The voting results in the studio would seem to support the notion that many 'undecideds', and many Yanukovych supporters, also perceive these criminal cases as being politically motivated.

My guess is Ukrainians are getting rather scared that too much power is being accumulated by the current Yanukovych-led power 'vertikal'.

1 comment:

Having watched closely Ukrainian politics for over a decade I am disenchanted at the state of play.

Yanukovych really did not have to proceed down this path. Tymoshenko was doing a good job of putting her foot in it without having been turned into a martyrs.

Much of the current situation lies at the feet of Ukraine's former president., Viktor Yushchenko. Yushchenko persistently opposed Ukraine becoming a true democratic state in line with European values and European models. Had Yushchenko supported the then majority of Ukraine's Parliament and embraced constitutional and structural change much of what is transpiring in Ukraine would not have come to pass. Yushchenko handed the presidency to Yanukovych and in doing so et back Ukraine's democratic development decades if not generations. Opportunity lost.

Information coming out of Ukraine implicates Yushchenko even more in various scandals and deals involving Firtash and gas contracts.

If anyone should be put on trial for betraying Ukraine it is Yushchenko more so then Tymoshenko.

The presidential system has failed Ukraine and will continue to betray Ukraine’s best interests. The best option is for Ukraine to reassess its form of government and embrace a full European parliamentary model

The proposal to see Ukraine revert to a MMP Parliamentary representation will further erode democratic rule in Ukraine.

Next year’s Parliamentary elections are expected to worsen the situation in Ukraine with the opposition losing support and Party or Regions with Strong Ukraine holding the balance of power. Presidential authority will get stronger, not weaker, and the parliament will once again rubber stamp the dictates of the president.

The only chance of bringing about meaningful reform in the rights direction will sadly be as a result of a major economic collapse. By then it Ukraine will be on its knees with the people of Ukraine suffering yet again for the errs and mistakes of their recent leaders.